Preview Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller, Scott Spoolman (2015)

Preview Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller, Scott Spoolman (2015) Preview Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller, Scott Spoolman (2015) Preview Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller, Scott Spoolman (2015) Preview Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller, Scott Spoolman (2015) Preview Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller, Scott Spoolman (2015)

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

FIFTEENTH EDITION

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ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO

In 2005, nature journalist Richard Louv hypothesized that many people, especially children, have

experienced nature-deficit disorder, a series of problems resulting from their spending increasingly less time in the natural world Many children and young adults spend most of their free time indoors watching TV and using smart phones, computers, and other electronic devices Evidence indicates that such isolation from nature could be contributing to stress, anxiety, depression, irritability, difficulty in dealing with change, and excessive body weight In the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 33% of all children and 69% of all adults over age 20 are overweight

or obese Also, the indoor air in U.S homes and buildings is typically 2 to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air, according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, which could be contributing to the increasing incidence of certain lung ailments

Nature-deficit disorder is partly an effect of urbanization More than half of the world’s people now live in urban areas, many of which do not have enough parks and recreational areas to make it easy for people to get out Cities also have higher crime rates than do rural areas, and the continuous news cycle along with social networking keep people hyper-informed about crime and other threats Thus, many people are afraid to venture out

Research indicates that children and adults can gain many benefits by playing and exploring outdoors, hiking, jogging, snorkeling (see cover photo), fishing, gardening, and bird-watching Such activities can foster better health, reduce stress, improve mental abilities, and stimulate imagination and creativity

Experiencing nature can also provide a sense of wonder and connection to life on Earth, which keeps

us alive and supports our economies

Environmental scientists have identified this increasing isolation from nature as one of the five major causes of the environmental problems we face

Without an understanding of our utter dependence

on nature for food, shelter, clean air, clean water, and many other natural resources and services, we become more likely to degrade our environment

With such an understanding, we will be more likely

to reverse such degradation and to contribute positively to the environment and thus to our own well-being

Jason Edwards/National Geographic Creative

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ENVIRONMENTAL

SCIENCE FIFTeeNTh EdITION

G Tyler Miller Scott E Spoolman

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This is an electronic version of the print textbook Due to electronic rights restrictions,some third party content may be suppressed Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience The publisher reserves the right

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Environmental Science, Fifteenth Edition

G Tyler Miller, Scott E Spoolman

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Detailed Contents vi

Preface for Instructors xiv

Note to Students xxiii

hUMANS ANd SUSTAINABILITY: AN OVERVIEW

1 Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 2

ECOLOGY ANd SUSTAINABILITY

2 Science, Matter, Energy, and Systems 24

3 Ecosystems: What Are They and how do They Work? 40

4 Biodiversity and Evolution 62

5 Species Interactions, Ecological Succession, and Population

Control 82

6 The human Population and Urbanization 100

7 Climate and Biodiversity 128

SUSTAINING RESOURCES ANd ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

10 Food Production and the Environment 214

11 Water Resources and Water Pollution 248

12 Geology and Nonrenewable Mineral Resources 288

13 Energy Resources 312

14 Environmental hazards and human health 358

15 Air Pollution, Climate Change, and Ozone depletion 386

16 Solid and hazardous Waste 428

SUSTAINING hUMAN SOCIETIES

17 Environmental Economics, Politics, and Worldviews 452

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Preface for Instructors xiv

1.2 How Are Our Ecological

Footprints Affecting the Earth? 10

Doing Environmental Science 23

Global Environment Watch

Ecological Footprint Analysis 23

ECOLOgY AND SUSTAINABILITY

2.3 What Is Energy and What Happens When It Undergoes

2.4 What Are Systems and How

Do They Respond to Change? 36

TYINg IT ALL TOgETHER 37

They and how do They

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Table of Contents vii

and Why Is It Important? 65

SCIENCE FOCUS Insects Play a Vital

CASE STUdY The American

Alligator—A Keystone Species

That Almost Went Extinct 69

SCIENCE FOCUS Scientists Are

Searching for the Causes of

CASE STUdY Why Should We

4.3 How Does the Earth’s Life

4.4 What Factors Affect

5.3 What Limits the Growth of

6.1 How Many People Can

SCIENCE FOCUS How Long Can the Human Population Keep

6.2 What Factors Influence the Size of the Human Population? 104

CASE STUdY The U.S Population—

Third Largest and Growing 105

6.3 How Does a Population’s Age Structure Affect Its Growth

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6.5 What Are the Major Urban

Resource and Environmental

CASE STUdY Urbanization in the

CASE STUdY Mexico City 119

6.6 How Does Transportation

Affect Urban Environmental

6.7 How Can Cities Become

More Sustainable and Livable? 122

CASE STUdY The Eco-City

Concept in Curitiba, Brazil 123

CORE CASE STUDY Why Should

We Care about Coral Reefs? 130

7.1 What Factors Influence

7.2 What Are the World’s Major Terrestrial Ecosystems and How Are Human Activities Affecting

SCIENCE FOCUS Staying Alive in the

7.3 What Are the Major Types

of Marine Aquatic Systems and How Are Human Activities

CASE STUdY Revisiting Coral Reefs—

Amazing Centers of Biodiversity 147

7.4 What Are the Major Types

of Freshwater Systems and How Are Human Activities Affecting

SUSTAININg BIODIVERSITY

8.1 What Role Do Humans Play

in the Loss of Species and

8.3 How Do Humans Accelerate Species Extinction and

Degradation of Ecosystem

SCIENCE FOCUS Honeybee Losses:

CASE STUdY A Disturbing Message

individuals matter

Çag˘an Hakkı S¸ekerciog˘lu:

Protector of Birds and National Geographic Emerging

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Table of Contents ix

8.4 How Can We Sustain Wild

Species and the Ecosystem Services

CORE CASE STUDY Costa Rica—

A Global Conservation Leader 186

9.1 What Are the Major

Threats to Forest Ecosystems? 187

SCIENCE FOCUS Putting a Price Tag

on Nature’s Ecosystem Services 188

CASE STUdY Many Cleared Forests

in the United States Have Grown

9.2 How Should We Manage

9.3 How Should We Manage

and Sustain Grasslands? 196

9.4 How Should We Manage and Sustain Parks and Nature

CASE STUdY Stresses on

SCIENCE FOCUS Reintroducing the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone

CASE STUdY Ecological Restoration

of a Tropical Dry Forest in

9.6 How Can We Help to Sustain Aquatic Biodiversity? 204 SCIENCE FOCUS Ocean Acidification:

The Other CO2 Problem 206

Sylvia Earle—Advocate

SUSTAININg RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Why Is It Difficult To Attain? 217

CASE STUdY Industrialized Food Production in the United States 220

Problems Arise from Industrialized Food Production? 223 SCIENCE FOCUS Soil Is the

Foundation of Life on Land 226

from Pests More Sustainably? 231

CASE STUdY Ecological Surprises:

The Law of Unintended

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10.6 How Can We Produce

Food More Sustainably? 238

CASE STUdY Soil Erosion in the

SCIENCE FOCUS Perennial

Polyculture and the Land

CASE STUdY Freshwater

Resources in the United States 253

CASE STUdY Aquifer Depletion

CASE STUdY How Dams Can

CASE STUdY The Aral Sea Disaster:

A Glaring Example of Unintended Consequences 261

Freshwater More Sustainably? 262

Sandra Postel: National Geographic Fellow and Freshwater Conservationist 268

with Water Pollution? 268

CASE STUdY Is Bottled Water

SCIENCE FOCUS The Gulf of Mexico’s Annual Dead Zone 278 SCIENCE FOCUS Treating Sewage

by Working with Nature 282

Geological Processes and What Are Mineral Resources? 291

of Nonrenewable Mineral

CASE STUdY Global and U.S Rare

Effects of Using Nonrenewable

Resources More Sustainably? 301 SCIENCE FOCUS Graphene:

A Revolutionary Material 302

Yu-Guo Guo: Designer of Nanotechnology Batteries and National Geographic

Dick Ercken/Shutterstock.com Joel Sartore/National Geographic Creative

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Table of Contents xi

Major Geological Hazards? 304

CORE CASE STUDY The Astounding

Potential for Wind Power in the

and Why Is It Important? 315

and Disadvantages of Using

SCIENCE FOCUS Removing Tightly

Held Oil and Natural Gas by

Drilling Sideways and Fracking 318

CASE STUdY Oil Production

and Consumption in

CASE STUdY Natural Gas

Production and Fracking

and Disadvantages of Using

CASE STUdY The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident

an Important Energy Resource? 332 SCIENCE FOCUS The Search for

and Disadvantages of Using Renewable Energy Resources? 340

Andrés Ruzo—Geothermal Energy Sleuth and National Geographic

the Transition to a More Sustainable Energy Future? 352

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14.5 How Do We Perceive Risks

and How Can We Avoid the Worst

Climate Change in the Future? 402

SCIENCE FOCUS Using Models

to Project Future Changes in

Atmospheric Temperatures 408

Possible Effects of a Warmer

Projected Climate Change? 414

Ozone in the Stratosphere and What Can We Do about It? 421

Related to Solid and Hazardous

Reusing, and Recycling So

and Disadvantages of Burning or

CASE STUdY Recycling E-Waste 442

CASE STUdY Hazardous Waste Regulation in the United States 445

Transition to a More Sustainable

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Table of Contents xiii

SUSTAININg HUMAN SOCIETIES

Economics, Politics, and

CORE CASE STUDY The United

States, China, and

Systems Related to the

Economic Tools to Deal with

Environmental Problems? 457

CASE STUdY Microlending 462

More Sustainable and Just

Environmental Policies? 465

CASE STUdY Managing Public Lands

in the United States—Politics

CASE STUdY U.S Environmental

Environmental Worldviews? 474 SCIENCE FOCUS Biosphere 2—

SUPPLEMENTS

2 Reading Graphs and Maps S2

3 Some Basic Chemistry S5

4 Maps and Map Analysis S14

5 Environmental Data and

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For Instructors

We wrote this book to help instructors achieve three

important goals: first, to explain to their students the

basics of environmental science; second, to help their

stu-dents in using this scientific foundation to understand the

environmental problems that we face and to evaluate

pos-sible solutions to them; and third, to inspire their students

to make a difference in how we treat the earth on which

our lives and economies depend, and thus in how we

treat ourselves and our descendants

We view environmental problems and possible

solu-tions to them through the lens of sustainability—the

inte-grating theme of this book We believe that most people

will still be able to live comfortable and fulfilling lives,

and that societies will be more prosperous and

peace-ful, when sustainability becomes one of the chief

mea-sures by which personal choices and public policies are

made We consistently challenge students to work toward

attaining such a future

For this reason, we are happy to be working with the

National Geographic Society in the production of this

book This partnership has allowed us to include many

stunning and informative photographs, numerous maps,

and many new stories of National Geographic Explorers

and other researchers who have received funding from

National Geographic—people who are making a

posi-tive difference in the world With these new tools, we

continue to tell of the good news from various fields of

environmental science, hoping to inspire young people to

commit themselves to making our world a more

sustain-able place to live for their own and future generations

What’s New in This Edition?

• Our partnership with National Geographic has given us

access to hundreds of amazing photographs, numerous

maps, and inspiring stories of National Geographic

Explorers and grantees—people who are leading the way

in environmental science, education, or

entrepreneur-ial enterprises

• A stunning new design with a National Geographic look

that enhances visual learning

• New Core Case Studies for 10 of the book’s 17 chapters

bring important real-world stories to the forefront

for use in applying those chapters’ concepts and

principles

• New Supplement 6, Geologic and Biological Time

Scale, that locates major developments related to life

on Earth, including the mass extinctions, within the

earth’s geologic time scale

Sustainability Is the Integrating Theme of This Book

Sustainability is the overarching theme of this textbook

You can see the sustainability emphasis by looking at the Brief Contents (p v)

Six principles of sustainability play a major role in rying out this book’s sustainability theme These principles are introduced in Chapter 1 They are depicted in Figure 1.2 (p 6) and Figure 1.5 (p 9) and summarized in Sup-plement 7 (pp S50–S51), and we apply them throughout the book, with each reference marked in the mar-gin as shown here (see pp 50 and 219)

car-We use the following five major subthemes to grate material throughout this book:

resources and ecosystem services that support all life and economies See Figures 1.3, p 7, and 9.4, p 189

activities can degrade natural capital See Figures 1.7,

p 10, and 7.17, p 146

to environmental problems in a balanced manner and challenge students to use critical thinking to evaluate them See Figures 9.14, p 195, and 11.11, p 257

trade-offs, because any solution requires weighing tages against disadvantages Our Trade-offs diagrams located in several chapters present the benefits and drawbacks of various environmental technologies and solutions to environmental problems See Figures 13.9,

advan-p 322, and 16.11, p 439

Matter boxes and some of the Case Studies describe what various scientists and concerned citizens (includ-ing several National Geographic Explorers) have done

to help us work toward sustainability (see pp 17, 209, and 237) Also, a number of What Can You Do? dia-grams describe how readers can deal with the prob-lems we face (see Figures 11.21, p 267, and 13.44,

p 353) Eight especially important steps that people can take are summarized in Figure 17.21 (p 478)

Other Successful Features of This Textbook

widely praised for keeping users up to date in the idly changing field of environmental science We have used thousands of articles and reports published in 2011–2014 to update the information in this book

rap-Major new or updated topics include planetary

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bound-Preface xv

aries and ecological tipping points (Science Focus 3.3,

p 58), hydraulic fracturing, or fracking (Science Focus 13.1, p 318), and the rising threat of ocean acidifica-tion (Science Focus 9.3, p 206), along with dozens of other important topics

on the main ideas, we built each major chapter tion around a key question and one to three key concepts, which state the section’s most important take-away lessons In each chapter, all key questions are listed at the front of the chapter, and each chap-ter section begins with its key question and concepts (see pp 187 and 262) Also, the concept applications are highlighted and referenced throughout each chapter

Approach Chapters 2–7 cover scien-tific principles important to the course and discuss how scientists work (see Brief Contents, p v) Important environmental science topics are explored in depth in Science Focus boxes distributed among the chapters throughout the book (see pp 206 and 408) We also integrate science coverage throughout the book in var-ious Case Studies (see pp 175 and 203) and in numer-ous figures

per-spective, first on the ecological level, revealing how all the world’s life is connected and sustained within the biosphere, and second, through the use of infor-mation and images from around the world This includes more than 40 maps in the basic text and in Supplement 4 At the end of each chapter is a Global Environment Watch Exercise that applies this global perspective

Case Study (see pp 162 and 216), which is applied throughout the chapter These applications are indi-cated by the notation Core Case Study wherever they occur (see pp 171 and 240) Each chapter ends with a

Tying it All

Together box (see pp 181 and 244) that con-nects the Core Case Study and other material in the chapter to some or all of the principles of sustainability

some 42 additional Case Studies (see pp 220, 259, and 322) appear throughout the book (and are listed in the Detailed Contents, pp vi–xiii) Each of these provides

an in-depth look at specific environmental problems and their possible solutions

describes critical thinking skills, and specific critical

thinking exercises are used throughout the book in several ways:

• In dozens of Thinking About exercises that ask

stu-dents to analyze material immediately after it is presented (see pp 117 and 263)

• In all Science Focus boxes.

• In dozens of Connections boxes that stimulate critical

thinking by exploring often surprising connections related to environmental problems (see pp 166 and 396)

• In the captions of many of the book’s figures (see Figures 8.4, p 166, and 11.13, p 260)

• In end-of-chapter Critical Thinking questions (see

pp 126 and 356)

by material from National Geographic and more than

440 photographs, many of them from the archives of National Geographic, this is the most visually arresting environmental science textbook available (see Figures 5.9, p 92, 7.16, p 145, and 9.13, p 195) Add in the more than 130 diagrams, each designed to present complex ideas in understandable ways relating to the real world (see Figures 3.3, p 44, and 4.2, p 65), and you also have one of the most visually informative textbooks available

widely varying environmental science courses, we have designed a highly flexible book that allows instructors to vary the order of chapters without exposing students to terms and concepts that could confuse them We recommend that instructors start with Chapter 1, which defines basic terms and gives an overview of sustainability, population, pollution, resources, and economic development issues that are discussed throughout the book This provides a spring-board for instructors to use the other chapters in almost any order One often-used strategy is to follow Chapter 1 with Chapters 2–7, which introduce basic science and ecological concepts Instructors can then use the remaining chapters in any order desired Some instructors follow Chapter 1 with Chapter 17 on envi-ronmental economics, politics, and worldviews, respectively, before proceeding to the chapters on basic science and ecological concepts We provide a second level of flexibility in seven Supplements (see p xiii in the Detailed Contents), which instructors can assign as desired to meet their needs Examples include Some Basic Chemistry (Supplement 3), Maps and Map Anal-ysis (Supplement 4), Environmental Data and Data

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showing a Geologic and Biological Time Scale

Key Questions showing how the chapter is organized

(see pp 312–313) When a new key term is introduced

and defined, it is printed in boldface type and all such

terms are summarized in the glossary at the end of the

book In most chapters, Thinking About exercises

rein-force learning by asking students to think critically

about the implications of various environmental issues

and solutions immediately after they are discussed in

the text (see p 320) The captions of many figures

contain similar questions that get students to think

about the figure content (see Figures 13.5, p 320, and

13.34, p 345) In their reading, students also encoun-ter Connections boxes, which briefly describe

connec-tions between human activities and environmental

consequences, environmental and social issues, and

environmental issues and solutions (see pp 347 and

349) Finally, the text of each chapter wraps up with

three Big Ideas (see p 353), which summarize and

reinforce three of the major take-away lessons from

each chapter, and a Tying It All Together section that

relates the Core Case Study and other chapter content

to the principles of sustainability (see p 354)

Each chapter ends with a Chapter Review section

con-taining a detailed set of review questions that include all

of the chapter’s key terms in bold type; Critical Thinking

questions that encourage students to think about and

apply what they have learned to their lives; Doing

Envi-ronmental Science—an exercise that will help students

to experience the work of various environmental

scien-tists; a Global Environment Watch exercise taking student

to Cengage’s GREENR site where they can use this tool

for interesting research related to chapter content; and a

Data Analysis or Ecological Footprint Analysis problem built

around ecological footprint data or some other

environ-mental data set (See pp 127 and 357.)

Online Solutions and Resources

per-

sonalized online learning Beyond an e-Book, home-work solution, digital supplement, or premium

web-site, MindTap is a digital learning platform that works

alongside your campus Learning Management System

(LMS) to deliver course curriculum across the range of

electronic devices in your life MindTap is built on an

“app” model allowing enhanced digital collaboration

and delivery of engaging content across a spectrum of

tor’s Companion Site for tips on maximizing your MindTap course

interactive learning solution that improves hension and outcomes by increasing student effort and engagement Aplia provides automatically graded assignments that were written to make the most of the web medium and contain detailed, immediate expla-nations on every question Students come to class pre-pared and ready to participate Diverse types of ques-tions aim to reinforce, extend, and apply key concepts

compre-by focusing on case studies, data analysis, real-world applications, global perspectives, and more Aplia homework is also available via MindTap

your course in one place! This collection of specific lecture and class tools is available online via www.cengage.com/login Access and download Power-Point presentations, images, instructor’s manual, vid-eos, and more

Learning Testing Powered by Cognero is a flexible, online system that allows you to author, edit, and manage test bank content from multiple Cengage Learning solutions; create multiple test versions in an instant; and deliver tests from your LMS, your class-room, or wherever you want

informative video clips cover current news stories on environmental issues from around the world These clips are a great way to start a lecture or spark a discus-sion Available on the Instructor’s Companion Site and within MindTap

help Us Improve This Book or Its Supplements

Let us know how you think this book can be improved If you find any errors, bias, or confusing explanations, please e-mail us about them at:

• mtg89@hotmail.com

• spoolman@tds.net

Most errors can be corrected in subsequent printings

of this edition, as well as in future editions

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Envi-Preface xvii

ronment, the 11 editions of Sustaining the Earth, and the

7 editions of Essentials of Ecology, and who have corrected

errors and offered many helpful suggestions for

improve-ment We are also deeply indebted to the more than 400

reviewers, who pointed out errors and suggested many

important improvements in the various editions of these

three books

It takes a village to produce a textbook, and the bers of the talented production team, listed on the copy-

mem-right page, have made vital contributions Our special

thanks go to Senior Content Developer Jake Warde,

Senior Content Project Manager Hal Humphrey,

pro-duction editor Dan Fitzgerald, copy editor Chris DeVito,

chapter layout specialist Cheryl Whitley, Senior Art Direc-tor Pam Galbreath, photo researcher Carly Bergey, artist

Patrick Lane, Product Development Manager Alexandria

Brady, assistant editor Chelsea Joy, Assistant Content

Developers Kellie Petruzzelli and Casey Lozier, and

Cen-gage Learning’s hard-working sales staff Finally, we are

very fortunate to have the guidance, inspiration, and

unfailing support of life sciences Senior Product Team

Manager Yolanda Cossio and her dedicated team of highly

talented people who have made this and our other book

projects such a pleasure to work on

G Tyler Miller Scott E Spoolman

Guest Essayists

Guest essays by the following authors are available as

assignable activities via MindTap: M Kat Anderson,

eth-noecologist with the National Plant Center of the USDA’s

Natural Resource Conservation Center; Lester R Brown,

president, Earth Policy Institute; Alberto Ruz Buenfil,

environmental activist, writer, and performer; Robert D

Bullard, professor of sociology and director of the

Envi-

ronmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta Uni-versity; Michael Cain, ecologist and adjunct professor at

Bowdoin College; Herman E Daly, senior research

scholar at the School of Public Affairs, University of

Maryland; Lois Marie Gibbs, director, Center for Health,

Environment, and Justice; Garrett Hardin, professor

emeritus (now deceased) of human ecology, University of

California–Santa Barbara; John Harte, professor of

energy and resources, University of California–Berkeley;

Paul G Hawken, environmental author and business

leader; Jane Heinze-Fry, environmental educator; Paul

F Kamitsuja, infectious disease expert and physician;

Amory B Lovins, energy policy consultant and director

of research, Rocky Mountain Institute; Bobbi S Low,

professor of resource ecology, University of Michigan;

John J Magnuson, Director Emeritus of the Center for

Limnology, University of Wisconsin– Madison; Lester W

Milbrath, director of the research program in

environ-ment and society, State University of New York–Buffalo;

Peter Montague, director, Environmental Research

Foundation; Norman Myers, tropical ecologist and

consultant in environment and development; David W

Orr, professor of environmental studies, Oberlin College;

Noel Perrin, adjunct professor of environmental studies,

Dartmouth College; John Pichtel, Ball State University;

David Pimentel, professor of insect ecology and

agricul-tural sciences, Cornell University; Andrew C Revkin,

environmental author and environmental reporter for the

New York Times; Vandana Shiva, physicist, educator,

environmental consultant; Nancy Wicks, ecopioneer

and director of Round Mountain Organics; and Donald Worster, environmental historian and professor of Amer-

ican history, University of Kansas

Pedagogy Contributors

Dr Dean Goodwin and his colleagues, Berry Cobb, Deborah Stevens, Jeannette Adkins, Jim Lehner, Judy Treharne, Lonnie Miller, and Tom Mowbray, provided excellent contributions to the Data Analysis and Ecologi-cal Footprint Analysis exercises Mary Jo Burchart of Oak-land Community College wrote the in-text Global Envi-ronment Watch Exercises

Cumulative List of Reviewers

Barbara J Abraham, Hampton College; Donald D Adams, State University of New York at Plattsburgh; Larry G

Allen, California State University–Northridge; Susan Allen-Gil, Ithaca College; James R Anderson, U.S Geo-logical Survey; Mark W Anderson, University of Maine;

Kenneth B Armitage, University of Kansas; Samuel Arthur, Bowling Green State University; Gary J Atchison, Iowa State University; Thomas W H Backman, Lewis-Clark State College; Marvin W Baker, Jr., University of Oklahoma; Virgil R Baker, Arizona State University;

port; Ian G Barbour, Carleton College; Albert J Beck, California State University–Chico; Eugene C Beckham, Northwood University; Diane B Beechinor, Northeast Lakeview College; W Behan, Northern Arizona Univer-sity; David Belt, Johnson County Community College;

Stephen W Banks, Louisiana State University in Shreve-Keith L Bildstein, Winthrop College; Andrea Bixler, Clarke College; Jeff Bland, University of Puget Sound;

Roger G Bland, Central Michigan University; Grady

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Blount II, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi; Lisa K

Bonneau, University of Missouri–Kansas City; Georg

Borgstrom, Michigan State University; Arthur C Borror,

University of New Hampshire; John H Bounds, Sam

Houston State University; Leon F Bouvier, Population

Reference Bureau; Daniel J Bovin, Université Laval; Jan

Boyle, University of Great Falls; James A Brenneman,

University of Evansville; Michael F Brewer, Resources for

the Future, Inc.; Mark M Brinson, East Carolina Univer-sity; Dale Brown, University of Hartford; Patrick E

Brunelle, Contra Costa College; Terrence J Burgess,

Saddleback College North; David Byman, Pennsylvania

State University, Worthington–Scranton; Michael L Cain,

Bowdoin College; Lynton K Caldwell, Indiana University;

Faith Thompson Campbell, Natural Resources Defense

Council, Inc.; John S Campbell, Northwest College; Ray

Canterbery, Florida State University; Deborah L Carr,

Texas Tech University; Ted J Case, University of San

Diego; Ann Causey, Auburn University; Richard A

Cellarius, Evergreen State University; William U

Chan-dler, Worldwatch Institute; F Christman, University of

North Carolina–Chapel Hill; Lu Anne Clark, Lansing Com-munity College; Preston Cloud, University of California–

Santa Barbara; Bernard C Cohen, University of

Pitts-burgh; Richard A Cooley, University of California–Santa

Cruz; Dennis J Corrigan; George Cox, San Diego–State

University; John D Cunningham, Keene State College;

Herman E Daly, University of Maryland; Raymond F

Dasmann, University of California–Santa Cruz; Kingsley

Davis, Hoover Institution; Edward E DeMartini,

Univer-

sity of California–Santa Barbara; James Demastes, Univer-sity of Northern Iowa; Robert L Dennison, Heartland

Community College; Charles E DePoe, Northeast Louisi-ana University; Thomas R Detwyler, University of

Wis-consin; Bruce DeVantier, Southern Illinois University at

Carbondale; Peter H Diage, University of California, Riv-erside; Stephanie Dockstader, Monroe Community

Col-lege; Lon D Drake, University of Iowa; Michael Draney,

University of Wisconsin–Green Bay; David DuBose,

Shasta College; Dietrich Earnhart, University of Kansas;

Robert East, Washington & Jefferson College; T

Edmon-son, University of Washington; Thomas Eisner, Cornell

University; Michael Esler, Southern Illinois University;

David E Fairbrothers, Rutgers University; Paul P Feeny,

Cornell University; Richard S Feldman, Marist College;

Vicki Fella-Pleier, La Salle University; Nancy Field,

Bel-levue Community College; Allan Fitzsimmons, University

of Kentucky; Andrew J Friedland, Dartmouth College;

Kenneth O Fulgham, Humboldt State University; Lowell

L Getz, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign;

Frederick F Gilbert, Washington State University; Jay

Glassman, Los Angeles Valley College; Harold Goetz, North Dakota State University; Srikanth Gogineni, Axia College of University of Phoenix; Jeffery J Gordon, Bowl-ing Green State University; Eville Gorham, University of Minnesota; Michael Gough, Resources for the Future;

Ernest M Gould, Jr., Harvard University; Peter Green, Golden West College; Katharine B Gregg, West Virginia Wesleyan College; Stelian Grigoras, Northwood Univer-sity; Paul K Grogger, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; L Guernsey, Indiana State University; Ralph Guzman, University of California–Santa Cruz; Raymond Hames, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Robert Hamilton

IV, Kent State University, Stark Campus; Raymond E

ifornia State University–Fullerton; William S Harden-bergh, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; John P

Hampton, Central Michigan University; Ted L Hanes, Cal-Harley, Eastern Kentucky University; Neil A Harriman, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh; Grant A Harris, Wash-ington State University; Harry S Hass, San Jose City Col-lege; Arthur N Haupt, Population Reference Bureau;

Denis A Hayes, environmental consultant; Stephen Heard, University of Iowa; Gene Heinze-Fry, Department

of Utilities, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Jane Heinze-Fry, environmental educator; Keith R Hench, Kirkwood Community College; John G Hewston, Hum-boldt State University; David L Hicks, Whitworth College;

Kenneth M Hinkel, University of Cincinnati; Eric Hirst, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Doug Hix, University of Hartford; Kelley Hodges, Gulf Coast State College; S Hol-ling, University of British Columbia; Sue Holt, Cabrillo College; Donald Holtgrieve, California State University–

Hayward; Michelle Homan, Gannon University; Michael

H Horn, California State University–Fullerton; Mark A

Hornberger, Bloomsberg University; Marilyn Houck, Pennsylvania State University; Richard D Houk, Win-throp College; Robert J Huggett, College of William and Mary; Donald Huisingh, North Carolina State University;

Catherine Hurlbut, Florida Community College at sonville; Marlene K Hutt, IBM; David R Inglis, University

Jack-of Massachusetts; Robert Janiskee, University Jack-of South Carolina; Hugo H John, University of Connecticut; Brian

A Johnson, University of Pennsylvania–Bloomsburg;

David I Johnson, Michigan State University; Mark Jonasson, Crafton Hills College; Zoghlul Kabir, Rutgers, New Brunswick; Agnes Kadar, Nassau Community Col-lege; Thomas L Keefe, Eastern Kentucky University;

David Kelley, University of St Thomas; William E Kelso, Louisiana State University; Nathan Keyfitz, Harvard Uni-versity; David Kidd, University of New Mexico; Pamela S

Kimbrough; Jesse Klingebiel, Kent School; Edward J

Kormondy, University of Hawaii–Hilo/West Oahu College;

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Preface xix

John V Krutilla, Resources for the Future, Inc.; Judith

Kunofsky, Sierra Club; E Kurtz; Theodore Kury, State

University of New York at Buffalo; Troy A Ladine, East

Texas Baptist University; Steve Ladochy, University of

Winnipeg; Anna J Lang, Weber State University; Mark B

Lapping, Kansas State University; Michael L Larsen,

Campbell University; Linda Lee, University of

Connecti-cut; Tom Leege, Idaho Department of Fish and Game;

Maureen Leupold, Genesee Community College; William

S Lindsay, Monterey Peninsula College; E S Lindstrom,

Pennsylvania State University; M Lippiman, New York

University Medical Center; Valerie A Liston, University of

Minnesota; Dennis Livingston, Rensselaer Polytechnic

Institute; James P Lodge, air pollution consultant;

Raymond C Loehr, University of Texas at Austin; Ruth

Logan, Santa Monica City College; Robert D Loring,

DePauw University; Paul F Love, Angelo State University;

Thomas Lovering, University of California–Santa Barbara;

Amory B Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute; Hunter

Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute; Gene A Lucas, Drake

University; Claudia Luke, University of California–Berkeley;

David Lynn; Timothy F Lyon, Ball State University;

Stephen Malcolm, Western Michigan University; Melvin

G Marcus, Arizona State University; Gordon E Matzke,

Oregon State University; Parker Mauldin, Rockefeller

Foundation; Marie McClune, The Agnes Irwin School

(Rosemont, Pennsylvania); Theodore R McDowell,

Cali-

fornia State University; Vincent E McKelvey, U.S Geolog-ical Survey; Robert T McMaster, Smith College; John G

Merriam, Bowling Green State University; A Steven

Messenger, Northern Illinois University; John Meyers,

Middlesex Community College; Raymond W Miller, Utah

State University; Arthur B Millman, University of Massa-chusetts, Boston; Sheila Miracle, Southeast Kentucky

Community & Technical College; Fred Montague, Univer-sity of Utah; Rolf Monteen, California Polytechnic State

University; Debbie Moore, Troy University Dothan

University; Jan Newhouse, University of Hawaii–Manoa;

Jim Norwine, Texas A&M University–Kingsville; John E

Oliver, Indiana State University; Mark Olsen, University

of Notre Dame; Carol Page, copy editor; Bill Paletski, Penn

State University; Eric Pallant, Allegheny College; Charles

F Park, Stanford University; Richard J Pedersen, U.S

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; David Pelliam,

Bureau of Land Management, U.S Department of the

Interior; Murray Paton Pendarvis, Southeastern Louisiana University; Dave Perault, Lynchburg College; Barry Perl-mutter, College of Southern Nevada; Carolyn J Peters, Spoon River College; Rodney Peterson, Colorado State University; Julie Phillips, De Anza College; John Pichtel, Ball State University; William S Pierce, Case Western Reserve University; David Pimentel, Cornell University;

Peter Pizor, Northwest Community College; Mark D

Plunkett, Bellevue Community College; Grace L Powell, University of Akron; James H Price, Oklahoma College;

sity of Vermont; Charles C Reith, Tulane University; Erin

Marian E Reeve, Merritt College; Carl H Reidel, Univer-fornia State University–San Diego; L Reynolds, University

C Rempala, San Diego City College; Roger Revelle, Cali-sity of Pennsylvania; Charles Rhyne, Jackson State Uni-versity; Robert A Richardson, University of Wisconsin;

of Central Arkansas; Ronald R Rhein, Kutztown Univer-Benjamin F Richason III, St Cloud State University;

Jennifer Rivers, Northeastern University; Ronald berecht, University of Idaho; William Van B Robertson, School of Medicine, Stanford University; C Lee Rockett, Bowling Green State University; Terry D Roelofs, Hum-boldt State University; Daniel Ropek, Columbia George Community College; Christopher Rose, California Poly-technic State University; Richard G Rose, West Valley College; Stephen T Ross, University of Southern Missis-sippi; Robert E Roth, Ohio State University; Dorna Sakurai, Santa Monica College; Arthur N Samel, Bowling Green State University; Shamili Sandiford, College of DuPage; Floyd Sanford, Coe College; David Satterthwaite, I.E.E.D., London; Stephen W Sawyer, University of Mary-land; Arnold Schecter, State University of New York;

Rob-Frank Schiavo, San Jose State University; William H

Schlesinger, Ecological Society of America; Stephen H

Schneider, National Center for Atmospheric Research;

Clarence A Schoenfeld, University of Wisconsin–Madison;

Madeline Schreiber, Virginia Polytechnic Institute; Henry

A Schroeder, Dartmouth Medical School; Lauren A

Schroeder, Youngstown State University; Norman B

Schwartz, University of Delaware; George Sessions, Sierra College; David J Severn, Clement Associates; Don Sheets, Gardner-Webb University; Paul Shepard, Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate School; Michael P Shields, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Kenneth Shio-vitz; F Siewert, Ball State University; E K Silbergold, Environmental Defense Fund; Joseph L Simon, Univer-sity of South Florida; William E Sloey, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh; Robert L Smith, West Virginia Univer-sity; Val Smith, University of Kansas; Howard M Smolkin, U.S Environmental Protection Agency; Patricia M

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Sparks, Glassboro State College; John E Stanley, Univer-sity of Virginia; Mel Stanley, California State Polytechnic

University, Pomona; Richard Stevens, Monroe

Commu-nity College; Norman R Stewart, University of Wisconsin–

Milwaukee; Frank E Studnicka, University of Wisconsin–

Platteville; Chris Tarp, Contra Costa College; Roger E

Thibault, Bowling Green State University; Nathan E

Thomas, University of South Dakota; William L Thomas,

California State University–Hayward; Shari Turney, copy

editor; John D Usis, Youngstown State University; Tinco

E A van Hylckama, Texas Tech University; Robert R Van

Kirk, Humboldt State University; Donald E Van Meter,

Ball State University; Rick Van Schoik, San Diego State

University; Gary Varner, Texas A&M University; John D

Vitek, Oklahoma State University; Harry A Wagner,

versity of Nevada–Las Vegas; Samuel J Williamson, New York University; Dwina Willis, Freed-Hardeman Univer-sity; Ted L Willrich, Oregon State University; James Win-sor, Pennsylvania State University; Fred Witzig, University

Ray Williams, Rio Hondo College; Roberta Williams, Uni-of Minnesota at Duluth; Martha Wolfe, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College; George M Woodwell, Woods Hole Research Center; Peggy J Wright, Columbia College; Todd Yetter, University of the Cumberlands;

Robert Yoerg, Belmont Hills Hospital; Hideo Yonenaka, San Francisco State University; Brenda Young, Daemen College; Anita Závodská, Barry University; Malcolm J

Zwolinski, University of Arizona

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xxi

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

G Tyler Miller has written 62

text-books for introductory courses in

en-vironmental science, basic ecology,

energy, and environmental

chemis-try Since 1975, Miller’s books have

been the most widely used textbooks

for environmental science in the

United States and throughout the

world They have been used by

al-most 3 million students and have

been translated into eight languages

Miller has a professional ground in chemistry, physics, and

back-

ecology He has a PhD from the Uni-versity of Virginia and has received

two honorary doctoral degrees for his

contributions to environmental

edu-cation He taught college for 20 years,

developed one of the nation’s first environmental studies programs, and developed an innovative interdisci-plinary undergraduate science pro-gram before deciding to write environmental science textbooks full time in 1975 Currently, he is the president of Earth Education and Re-search, devoted to improving envi-ronmental education

He describes his hopes for the future as follows:

If I had to pick a time to be alive, it would be the next 75 years Why? First, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that we are in the process of seri-

ously degrading our own life-support system In other words, we are living unsustainably Second, within your life- time we have the opportunity to learn how to live more sustainably by working with the rest of nature, as described in this book

I am fortunate to have three smart, talented, and wonderful sons—Greg, David, and Bill I am especially privileged

to have Kathleen as my wife, best friend, and research associate It is inspiring

to have a brilliant, beautiful (inside and out), and strong woman who cares deeply about nature as a lifemate She is

my hero I dedicate this book to her and

to the earth.

G TYLER MILLER

Scott Spoolman is a writer and

text-book editor with more than 30 years

of experience in educational

publish-ing He has worked with Tyler Miller

since 2003 as a contributing editor

and lately as coauthor of Living in the

Environment, Environmental Science,

and Sustaining the Earth With

Nor-man Myers, he coauthored

Environ-mental Issues and Solutions: A Modular

Approach

Spoolman holds a master’s gree in science journalism from the

de-

University of Minnesota He has au-thored numerous articles in the fields

of science, environmental

engineer-ing, politics, and business He worked

as an acquisitions editor on a series

of college forestry textbooks He has

also worked as a consulting editor in

the development of over 70 college and high school textbooks in fields of the natural and social sciences

In his free time, he enjoys ing the forests and waters of his native Wisconsin along with his family—his wife, environmental ed-ucator Gail Martinelli, and his chil-dren, Will and Katie

explor-Spoolman has the following to say about his collaboration with Ty-ler Miller

I am honored to be working with Tyler Miller as a coauthor to continue the Miller tradition of thorough, clear, and engaging writing about the vast and complex field of environmental science

I share Tyler Miller’s passion for ensuring that these textbooks and their multime-

dia supplements will be valuable tools for students and instructors To that end,

we strive to introduce this ary field in ways that will be informative and sobering, but also tantalizing and motivational

interdisciplin-If the flip side of any problem is indeed an opportunity, then this truly is one of the most exciting times in history for students to start an environmental career environmental problems are numerous, serious, and daunting, but their possible solutions generate exciting new career opportunities We place high priorities on inspiring students with these possibilities, challenging them to maintain a scientific focus, pointing them toward rewarding and fulfilling careers, and in doing so, working to help sustain life on the earth

SCOTT E SPOOLMAN

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FROM THE AUTHORS

My environmental journey began in 1966 when I heard a

lecture on population and pollution problems by Dean

Cowie, a biophysicist with the U.S Geological Survey It

changed my life I told him that if even half of what he said

was valid, I would feel ethically obligated to spend the rest

of my career teaching and writing to help students learn

about the basics of environmental science After spending

six months studying the environmental literature, I

con-cluded that he had greatly underestimated the seriousness

of these problems

I developed an undergraduate environmental studies

program and in 1971 published my first introductory en-vironmental science book, an interdisciplinary study of the

connections between energy laws (thermo dynamics),

chemistry, and ecology In 1975, I published the first edi-tion of Living in the Environment Since then, I have

com-pleted multiple editions of this textbook, and of three

others derived from it, along with other books

Beginning in 1985, I spent ten years in the deep woods

living in an adapted school bus that I used as an

environ-mental science laboratory and writing environenviron-mental

sci-ence textbooks I evaluated the use of passive solar energy

design to heat the structure; buried earth tubes to bring in

air cooled by the earth (geothermal cooling) at a cost of

about $1 per summer; set up active and passive systems to

provide hot water; installed an energy-efficient instant hot

water heater powered by LPG; installed energy-efficient

windows and appliances and a composting (waterless) toi-We the authors of this textbook and Cengage Learning,

the publisher, are committed to making the publishing

process as sustainable as possible This involves four basic

strategies:

Using sustainably produced paper The book publishing

industry is committed to increasing the use of recycled

fibers, and Cengage Learning is always looking for

ways to increase this content Cengage Learning works

with paper suppliers to maximize the use of paper

that contains only wood fibers that are certified as

sustainably produced, from the growing and cutting of

trees all the way through paper production

Reducing resources used per book The publisher has an

ongoing program to reduce the amount of wood pulp,

virgin fibers, and other materials that go into each

Cengage Learning’s Commitment to Sustainable Practices

let; employed biological pest control; composted food wastes; used natural planting (no grass or lawnmowers);

gardened organically; and experimented with a host of other potential solutions to major environmental problems that we face

I also used this time to learn and think about how ture works by studying the plants and animals around me

na-My experience from living in nature is reflected in much

of the material in this book It also helped me to develop the six simple principles of sustainability that serve as the integrating theme for this textbook and to apply these principles to living my life more sustainably

I came out of the woods in 1995 to learn about how to live more sustainably in an urban setting where most people live Since then, I have lived in two urban villages, one in a small town and one within a large metropolitan area

Since 1970, my goal has been to use a car as little as possible Since I work at home, I have a “low-pollute com-mute” from my bedroom to a chair and a laptop computer

I usually take one airplane trip a year to visit my sister and

my publisher

As you will learn in this book, life involves a series of environmental trade-offs Like most people, I still have a large environmental impact, but I continue to struggle to reduce it I hope you will join me in striving to live more sustainably and sharing what you learn with others It is not always easy, but it sure is fun

sheet of paper used New, specially designed printing presses also reduce the amount of scrap paper produced per book

Recycling Printers recycle the scrap paper that is produced

as part of the printing process Cengage Learning also recycles waste cardboard from shipping cartons, along with other materials used in the publishing process

Process improvements In years past, publishing has involved

using a great deal of paper and ink for the writing and editing of manuscripts, copyediting, reviewing page proofs, and creating illustrations Almost all of these materials are now saved through use of electronic files

Very little paper and ink were used in the preparation of this textbook

My Environmental Journey — G Tyler Miller

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xxiii

Students who can begin early in their lives

to think of things as connected, even if

they revise their views every year, have

begun the life of learning.

Mark Van Doren

Why Is It Important to Study Environmental

Science?

Welcome to environmental science—an interdisciplinary

study of how the earth works, how we interact with the

earth, and how we can deal with the environmental

prob-lems we face Because environmental issues affect every

part of your life, the concepts, information, and issues

dis-cussed in this book and the course you are taking will be

useful to you now and throughout your life

Understandably, we are biased, but we strongly believe that environmental science is the single most important course

that you could take What could be more important than

learning about the earth’s life-support system, how our

choices and activities affect it, and how we can reduce

our growing environmental impact? Evidence indicates

strongly that we will have to learn to live more

sustain-ably by reducing our degradation of the planet’s

life-support system We hope this book will inspire you to

become involved in this change in the way we view and

treat the earth, which sustains us, our economies, and all

other living things

You Can Improve Your Study and Learning

Skills

Maximizing your ability to learn involves trying to improve

your study and learning skills Here are some suggestions for

doing so:

Develop a passion for learning A passion for learning

will serve you well while studying environmental science

and in whatever career you choose

Get organized Planning is a key life skill.

Make daily to-do lists Put items in order of importance,

focus on the most important tasks, and assign a time to

work on these items Shift your schedule as needed to

accomplish the most important items

Set up a study routine in a distraction-free

environ-ment Develop a daily study schedule and stick to it Study

in a quiet, well-lit space Take breaks every hour or so

During each break, take several deep breaths and move

around; this will help you to stay more alert and focused

Avoid

procrastination Do not fall behind on your read-ing and other assignments Set aside a particular time for studying each day and make it a part of your daily routine

Make molehills out of mountains It can be difficult to

read an entire chapter or book, write a paper, or cram for

a test within a short period of time Instead, break these large tasks (mountains) down into a series of small tasks (molehills) Each day, read a few pages of the assigned book or chapter, write a few paragraphs of the paper, and review what you have studied and learned

Ask and answer questions as you read For example,

“What is the main point of a particular subsection or graph?” Relate your own questions to the key questions and key concepts addressed in each major chapter section

para-Focus on key terms Use the glossary in your textbook to

look up the meaning of terms or words you do not stand This book shows all key terms in bold type and

under-lesser, but still important, terms in italicized type The ter Review questions at the end of each chapter also include

Chap-the chapter’s key terms in bold Flash cards for testing your mastery of key terms for each chapter are available within MindTap, or you can make your own

Interact with what you read You could mark key

sen-tences and paragraphs with a highlighter or pen or with asterisks and notes in the margin or electronically if you are using MindTap (which may be synced with an Ever-note account) You might also mark important pages that you want to return to by using Post-it notes or by folding down page corners

Review to reinforce learning Before each class session,

review the material you learned in the previous session and read the assigned material

Become a good note taker Learn to write down the main

points and key information from any lecture Review, fill

in, and organize your notes as soon as possible after each class

Check what you have

learned At the end of each chap-ter, you will find review questions that cover all of the key material in each chapter section We suggest that you try to answer each of these questions after studying each chapter section Waiting to do this for the entire chapter after you complete it can be overwhelming

Write out answers to questions to focus and reinforce learning Write down your answers to the critical think-

ing questions found in the Thinking About boxes

through-out the chapters, in many figure captions, and at the end

of each chapter These questions are designed to inspire

NOTE TO STUDENTS

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you to think critically about key ideas and connect them

to other ideas and to your own life Also, write down your

answers to all chapter-ending review questions

Mind-Tap has additional questions for each chapter Save your

answers for review and test preparation

Use the buddy system Study with a friend or become a

member of a study group to compare notes, review

mate-rial, and prepare for tests Explaining something to

some-one else is a great way to focus your thoughts and

rein-force your learning Attend any review sessions offered by

instructors or teaching assistants

Learn your instructor’s test style Does your

instruc-tor emphasize multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank,

true-or-false, factual, or essay questions? How much of the test

will come from the textbook and how much from lecture

material? Adapt your learning and studying methods to

this style

Become a good test taker Avoid cramming Eat well and

get plenty of sleep before a test Arrive on time or early

Calm yourself and increase your oxygen intake by

tak-ing several deep breaths (Do this also about every 10–15

minutes while taking the test.) Look over the test and

answer the questions you know well first Then work on

the harder ones Use the process of elimination to narrow

down the choices for multiple-choice questions For essay

questions, organize your thoughts before you start writing

If you have no idea what a question means, make an

edu-cated guess You might earn some partial credit and avoid

getting a zero Another strategy for getting some credit is

to show your knowledge and reasoning by writing

some-thing like this: “If this question means so and so, then my

answer is .”

Develop an optimistic but realistic outlook Try to be a

“glass is half-full” rather than a “glass is half-empty”

per-son Pessimism, fear, anxiety, and excessive worrying

(especially over things you cannot control) are destructive

and lead to inaction

Take time to enjoy life Every day, take time to laugh and

enjoy nature, beauty, and friendship

You Can Improve Your Critical Thinking

Skills

Critical thinking involves developing skills to analyze

infor-mation and ideas, judge their validity, and make decisions

Critical thinking helps you to distinguish between facts

and opinions, evaluate evidence and arguments, and take

and defend informed positions on issues It also helps you

to integrate information, to see relationships, and to apply

your knowledge to dealing with various problems and decisions Here are some basic skills for learning how to think more critically

Question everything and everybody Be skeptical, as

any good scientist is Do not believe everything you hear and read, including the content of this textbook, without evaluating the information you receive Seek other sources and opinions

Identify and evaluate your personal biases and beliefs

Each of us has biases and beliefs taught to us by our ents, teachers, friends, role models, and our own experi-ence What are your basic beliefs, values, and biases?

par-Where did they come from? What assumptions are they based on? How sure are you that your beliefs, values, and assumptions are right and why? According to the Ameri-can psychologist and philosopher William James, “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

Be open-minded and

flexible Be open to considering dif-ferent points of view Suspend judgment until you gather more evidence, and be willing to change your mind Rec-ognize that there may be a number of useful and accept-able solutions to a problem, and that very few issues are either black or white Try to take the viewpoints of those you disagree with in order to better understand their thinking There are trade-offs involved in dealing with any environmental issue, as you will learn in this book

Be humble about what you know Some people are so

confident in what they know that they stop thinking and questioning To paraphrase American writer Mark Twain,

“It’s what we know is true, but just ain’t so, that hurts us.”

Find out how the information related to an issue was obtained Are the statements you heard or read based

on firsthand knowledge and research or on hearsay? Are unnamed sources used? Is the information based on repro-ducible and widely accepted scientific studies or on prelim-inary scientific results that may be valid but need further testing? Is the information based on a few isolated stories

or experiences or on carefully controlled studies that have been reviewed by experts in the field involved? Is it based

on unsubstantiated and dubious scientific information or beliefs?

Question the evidence and conclusions presented

What are the conclusions or claims based on the tion you’re considering? What evidence is presented to support them? Does the evidence support them? Is there a need to gather more evidence to test the conclusions? Are there other, more reasonable conclusions?

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informa-Note to Students xxv

Try to uncover differences in basic beliefs and

assump-tions On the surface, most arguments or disagreements

involve differences of opinion about the validity or

mean-ing of certain facts or conclusions Scratch a little deeper

and you will find that many disagreements are based on

different (and often hidden) basic assumptions

concern-ing how we look at and interpret the world around us

Uncovering these basic differences can allow the parties

involved to understand one another’s viewpoints and to

agree to disagree about their basic assumptions, beliefs, or

principles

Try to identify and assess any motives on the part of

those presenting evidence and drawing conclusions

What is their expertise in this area? Do they have any

unstated assumptions, beliefs, biases, or values? Do they

have a personal agenda? Can they benefit financially or

politically from acceptance of their evidence and

conclu-sions? Would investigators with different basic

assump-tions or beliefs take the same data and come to different

conclusions?

Expect and tolerate uncertainty Recognize that scientists

cannot establish absolute proof or certainty about

any-thing However, the results of science have varying degrees

of certainty

Check the arguments you hear and read for logical

fal-lacies and debating tricks Here are six of many examples

of such debating tricks First, attack the presenter of an

argument rather than the argument itself Second, appeal

to emotion rather than facts and logic Third, claim that if

one piece of evidence or one conclusion is false, then all

other related pieces of evidence and conclusions are false

Fourth, say that a conclusion is false because it has not

been scientifically proven (Scientists never prove anything

absolutely, but they can often establish high degrees of

cer-tainty.) Fifth, inject irrelevant or misleading information

to divert attention from important points Sixth, present

only either/or alternatives when there may be a number

of options

Do not believe everything you read on the Internet

The Internet is a wonderful and easily accessible source

of information that includes alternative explanations and

opinions on almost any subject or issue—much of it not

available in the mainstream media and scholarly articles

Blogs of all sorts have become a major source of informa-tion, more important than standard news media for some

people However, because the Internet is so open, anyone

can post anything they want to some blogs and other

web-sites with no editorial control or review by experts As a

result, evaluating information on the Internet is one of

the best ways to put into practice the principles of critical thinking discussed here Use and enjoy the Internet, but think critically and proceed with caution

Develop principles or rules for evaluating evidence

Develop a written list of principles to serve as guidelines for evaluating evidence and claims Continually evaluate and modify this list on the basis of your experience

Become a seeker of wisdom, not a vessel of tion Many people believe that the main goal of their edu-

informa-cation is to learn as much as they can by gathering more and more information We believe that the primary goal is

to learn how to sift through mountains of facts and ideas

to find the few nuggets of wisdom that are the most useful

for understanding the world and for making decisions

This book is full of facts and numbers, but they are ful only to the extent that they lead to an understanding

use-of key ideas, concepts, connections, and scientific laws and theories The major goals of the study of environmental science are to find out how nature works and sustains itself

(environmental wisdom) and to use principles of environmental wisdom to help make human societies and economies more

sustainable, more just, and more beneficial and enjoyable for all As writer Sandra Carey observed, “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”

To help you practice critical thinking, we have supplied questions throughout this book, found within each chap-

ter in brief boxes labeled Thinking About, in the captions of

many figures, and at the end of each chapter There are

no right or wrong answers to many of these questions A good way to improve your critical thinking skills is to com-pare your answers with those of your classmates and to discuss how you arrived at your answers

Use the Learning Tools We Offer in This Book

We have included a number of tools throughout this book that are intended to help you improve your learning

text-skills and apply them First, consider the Key Concepts list at

the beginning of each chapter section You can use these

to preview a chapter and to review the material after you’ve read it

Next, note that we use three different special notations throughout the text Each chapter opens with a Core Case Study, and each time we tie material within the chapter back to this core case, we note it in bold, colored type as

we did in this sentence You will also see two icons ing regularly in the text margins When you see the

appear-sustainability icon, you will know that you have just

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read something that relates directly to the overarching

theme of this text, summarized by our six principles of

sustainability which are introduced in Figures 1.2, p 6,

and 1.5, p 9, and summarized in Supplement 7 (pp S50–

S51) The Good News icon appears near each of many

examples of successes that people have had in

deal-ing with the environmental challenges we face

We also include several brief Connections boxes to show

you some of the often surprising connections between

environmental problems or processes and some of the

products and services we use every day or some of the

activities we partake in These, along with the Thinking

About boxes scattered throughout the text (both

desig-nated by the Consider This heading), are intended to get

you to think carefully about the activities and choices we

take for granted, and about how they might affect the

environment

At the end of each chapter, we list what we consider

to be the three big ideas that you should take away from

the chapter Following that list in each chapter is a Tying

It All Together box This feature quickly reviews the Core

Case Study and how key chapter material relates to it,

and it explains how the principles of sustainability can be

applied to deal with challenges discussed in the Core Case

Study and throughout the chapter

Finally, we have included a Chapter Review section at

the end of each chapter, with questions listed for each

chapter section These questions cover all of the key

mate-rial and key terms in each chapter In each chapter, they

are followed by Critical Thinking questions that help you

to apply chapter material to the real world and to your

own life; a Doing Environmental Science exercise to help

you experience the work of scientists; a Global

Environ-ment Watch exercise, in which you can use the exciting

GREENR online global environmental database; and a

Data Analysis or Ecological Footprint Analysis exercise to help

you learn how to interpret and use scientific research

data

Know Your Own Learning Style

People have different ways of learning and it can be help-ful to know your own learning style Visual learners learn

best from reading and viewing illustrations and diagrams

Auditory learners learn best by listening and discussing

They might benefit from reading aloud while studying

and using a tape recorder in lectures for study and review

Logical learners learn best by using concepts and logic to

uncover and understand a subject rather than relying

mostly on memory

This book and the related MindTap contain plenty of

tools for all types of learners Visual learners can benefit

from the animations and videos in MindTap that support many of the concepts presented In addition, features such

as an easy-to-use note-taking feature and flash cards help you learn important terms and concepts This is a highly visual book with many photographs and diagrams care-fully selected to illustrate important ideas, concepts, and

processes Auditory learners can make use of our Speaker app in MindTap, which can read the chapter aloud

Read-in various voices and speeds Additionally, podcasts turing interviews of National Geographic Explorers and grantees add context to many environmental issues For logical learners, the book is organized by key concepts that are revisited throughout any chapter and related carefully

fea-to other concepts, major principles, and case studies and other examples We urge you to become aware of your own learning style and make the most of these various tools

This Book Presents a Positive, Realistic Environmental Vision of the Future

Our goal is to present a positive vision of our tal future based on realistic optimism To do so, we strive not only to present the facts about environmental issues, but also to give a balanced presentation of different view-points We consider the advantages and disadvantages of various technologies and proposed solutions to environ-mental problems We argue that environmental solutions

environmen-usually require trade-offs among opposing parties, and that the best solutions are win-win solutions And we present

the good news as well as the bad news about efforts to deal with environmental problems

One cannot study a subject as important and complex

as environmental science without forming conclusions, opinions, and beliefs However, we argue that any such results should be based on use of critical thinking to eval-uate conflicting positions and to understand the trade-offs involved in most environmental solutions To that end,

we emphasize critical thinking throughout this textbook, and we encourage you to develop a practice of thinking critically about everything you read and hear, both in school, and throughout your life

help Us Improve This Book

Researching and writing a book that covers and nects the numerous major concepts from the wide vari-ety of environmental science disciplines is a challeng-ing and exciting task Almost every day, we learn about some new connection in nature However, in a book this complex, there are bound to be some errors—some typographical mistakes that slip through and some state-GOOD

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con-Note to Students xxvii

ments that you might question, based on your

knowl-edge and research We invite you to contact us to correct

any errors you find, point out any bias you see, and

You have a large variety of electronic and other

supple-mental materials available to you to help you take your

learning experience beyond this textbook:

MindTap Environmental Science MindTap is a new

approach to highly personalized online learning Beyond

an e-book, homework solution, digital supplement, or

pre-mium website, MindTap is a digital learning platform that

works alongside your campus Learning Management

Sys-tem (LMS) to deliver course curriculum across the range

of electronic devices in your life MindTap is built on an

“app” model allowing enhanced digital collaboration and

delivery of engaging content across a spectrum of Cengage

and non-Cengage resources

Aplia for Environmental Science Aplia™ is an online

interactive learning solution that helps you improve

com-prehension—and your grade—by integrating a variety of

mediums and tools such as videos, tutorials, practice tests,

and interactive e-books Aplia provides automatically graded assignments with detailed, immediate feedback on every question, and innovative teaching materials More than 2 million students like you have used Aplia at over 1,800 institutions Aplia should be purchased only when assigned by your instructor as part of your course

Global Environment Watch Updated several times a day,

the Global Environment Watch is a focused portal into GREENR—the Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources—an ideal one-stop site for classroom discussion and research projects This resource center keeps courses up to date with the most current news on the environment Users get access to information from trusted academic journals, news outlets, and maga-zines, as well as statistics, an interactive world map, videos, primary sources, case studies, podcasts, and much more

Log in or purchase access at www.cengagebrain.com to complete the exercises found at the end of each chapter

Links to GREENR for in-text activities are also provided via MindTap

Virtual Field Trips in Environmental Issues Virtual Field

Trips in Environmental Issues brings the field to you, with

dynamic panoramas, videos, photographs, maps, and zes covering important topics within environmental sci-

quiz-ence A case study approach covers the issues of keystone species, climate change’s role in extinctions, invasive species, the evolution of a species due to its environment, and an ecosystem approach to sustaining biodiversity Engage and interact with

these real issues to help you think critically about the world

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

FIFTEENTH EDITION

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footprints affecting the earth?

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No civilization has survived the ongoing destruction of its natural support system

Nor will ours.

lester r brown

Forests such as this one in California’s Sequoia National Park help to sustain all life and economies.

Robert Harding World Imagery/Alamy

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Core Case study

Sustainability is the

capacity of the earth’s natural systems

and human cultural systems to survive,

flourish, and adapt to changing

envi-ronmental conditions into the very

long-term future It is the overarching

theme of this textbook

Since the mid-1980s, there has been a boom in environmental aware-

ness on college campuses and in

pub-lic and private schools around the

world In the United States, hundreds

of colleges and universities have now

taken the lead in a quest to become

more sustainable and to educate their

students about sustainability

For example, at Oberlin College in Ohio, a group of students worked

with faculty members and architects

to design a more sustainable mental studies building (Figure 1.1) powered by solar panels, which pro-duce 30% more electricity than the building uses Closed-loop under-ground geothermal wells provide heating and cooling In its solar green-house, a series of open tanks popu-lated by plants and other organisms purifies the building’s wastewater The building collects rainwater for irrigat-ing the surrounding grasses, gardens, and meadow, which contain a diver-sity of plant and animal species

environ-Berea College in Kentucky boasts

an innovative environmental science curriculum including a Sustainable Appalachian Communities course The school also features its Ecovillage, a

50-unit experimental residence plex that uses passive solar heating, solar panels, and filtered rainwater

com-At the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2012, students reused, recycled, or composted more than 70% of their solid waste with a goal of reaching 100% by 2020 And in Ash-ville, North Carolina, Warren Wilson College gets more than a third of its food from regional farms, including its own large on-campus organic garden

In addition to making campuses greener, colleges are increasingly offer-ing environmental sustainability courses and programs At Pfeiffer University, many students have accompanied Pro-fessor Luke Dollar, a National Geo-graphic Emerging Explorer, on trips to

Madagascar to take part in his research on that coun-try’s endangered species and ecosystems At the University of Wisconsin–

Madison, the Nelson tute for Environmental Studies seeks to integrate sustainability content throughout the academic departments, as well as

Insti-to serve communities outside of the university

These and many other institutions are educating students who will provide leadership in helping us to make our societies and economies more sustainable during the next few decades

Maybe you will join the ranks of such environ-mental leaders

The Greening of American Campuses

FIGURE 1.1 The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

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Concept 1.1 5

1.1 WHAT ARE SOME PRINCIPLES

OF SUSTAINABILITY?

CONCEPT 1.1A Life on the earth has been sustained for

billions of years by solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical

cycling

CONCEPT 1.1B Our lives and economies depend on

en-ergy from the sun and on natural resources and ecosystem

services (natural capital) provided by the earth.

CONCEPT 1.1C We could shift toward living more

sustain-ably by applying full-cost pricing, searching for win-win

so-lutions, and committing to preserving the earth’s

life-support system for future generations

Environmental Science Is a Study of Our

Interactions with the World

The environment is everything around us It includes the

living and the nonliving things (air, water, and energy)

with which we interact in a complex web of relationships

that connect us to one another and to the world we live

in Despite our many scientific and technological

ad-vances, we are utterly dependent on the earth for clean air

and water, food, shelter, energy, fertile soil, and all other

components of the planet’s life-support system.

This textbook is an introduction to environmental

science, an interdisciplinary study of how humans interact

with the living and nonliving parts of their environment

It integrates information and ideas from the natural sciences

such as biology, chemistry, and geology; the social sciences

such as geography, economics, and political science; and

the humanities such as ethics The three goals of

environ-mental science are (1) to learn how life on the earth has

survived and thrived, (2) to understand how we interact

with the environment, and (3) to find ways to deal with

environmental problems and live more sustainably

A key component of environmental science is ogy, the biological science that studies how living things

ecol-interact with one another and with their environment

These living things are called organisms Each organism

belongs to a species, a group of organisms that has a

unique set of characteristics that distinguish it from other

groups of organisms

A major focus of ecology is the study of ecosystems An

ecosystem is a set of organisms within a defined area of

land or volume of water that interact with one another

and with their environment of nonliving matter and

en-ergy For example, a forest ecosystem consists of plants

(especially trees; see chapter-opening photo), animals, and

various other organisms that decompose organic

materi-als, all interacting with one another, with solar energy, and

with the chemicals in the forest’s air, water, and soil

We should not confuse environmental science and ecology with environmentalism, a social movement

dedicated to trying to sustain the earth’s life-support tems for all forms of life Environmentalism is practiced more in the political and ethical arenas than in the realm

sys-of science Environmentalism and environmental science are both being practiced vigorously on many college and university campuses (Core Case Study)

Three Scientific Principles of Sustainability

How has the incredible variety of life on the earth been sustained for at least 3.8 billion years in the face of cata-strophic changes in environmental conditions? Such changes included gigantic meteorites impacting the earth, ice ages lasting for hundreds of millions of years, and long warming periods during which melting ice raised sea levels

by hundreds of feet

The latest version of our species has been around for only about 200,000 years—less than the blink of an eye, relative to the 3.8 billion years that life has existed on the planet (see the Geologic and Biological Time Scale in Supplement 6, p S49) Yet, there is mounting scientific evidence that, as we have expanded into and dominated almost all of the earth’s ecosystems during that short time, and especially since 1900, we have seriously degraded these natural systems that support all species, including our own, and our economies

Our science-based research leads us to believe that three major natural factors have played the key roles in the long-term sustainability of life on this planet, as summa-rized below and in Figure 1.2 (Concept 1.1A) We use these

three scientific principles of sustainability, or lessons

from nature, throughout the book to suggest how we

might move toward a more sustainable future

• Dependence on solar energy: The sun’s input of

energy, called solar energy, warms the planet and

provides energy that plants use to produce nutrients,

the chemicals necessary for their own life processes and for those of most other animals, including

humans The sun also powers indirect forms of solar energy such as wind and flowing water, which we use

to produce electricity

• Biodiversity: The variety of genes, organisms, species,

and ecosystems in which organisms exist and interact are referred to as biodiversity (short for biological

diversity) The interactions among species, especially

the feeding relationships, provide vital ecosystem services and keep any population from growing too large Biodiversity also provides countless ways for life

to adapt to changing environmental conditions, even catastrophic changes that wipe out large numbers of species

• Chemical cycling: The circulation of chemicals

necessary for life from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment is called chemical cycling, or nutrient

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cycling The earth receives a continuous supply of

energy from the sun, but it receives no new supplies

of life-supporting chemicals Thus through their

complex interactions with their living and nonliving

environment, organisms must continually recycle the

chemicals they need in order to survive This means

that there is little waste in nature, other than in the

human world, because the wastes and decayed bodies

of any organism become nutrients or raw materials for

other organisms In nature,

waste = useful resources

Ecology and environmental science reveal that

interde-pendence, not indeinterde-pendence, is what sustains life and allows it

to adapt to a continually changing set of environmental

conditions Many environmental scientists argue that

un-derstanding this interdependence is the key to learning

how to live more sustainably

Sustainability Has Certain Key Components

Sustainability, the central integrating theme of this book,

has several critical components that we use as subthemes

One such component is natural capital—the natural

resources and ecosystem services that keep us and other species alive and support human economies (Figure 1.3)

Natural resources are materials and energy in

na-ture that are essential or useful to humans They are often

classified as inexhaustible resources (such as energy from the sun and wind), renewable resources (such as air, water, topsoil, plants, and animals) or nonrenewable or depletable

resources (such as copper, oil, and coal) Ecosystem

ser-vices are processes provided by healthy ecosystems that

support life and human economies at no monetary cost to

us Examples include purification of air and water, newal of topsoil, nutrient cycling, pollination, and pest control

re-Solar Energy

FIGURE 1.2 Three scientific principles

of sustainability based on how nature has sustained a huge variety of life on the earth for 3.8 billion years, despite drastic changes in environmental

conditions (Concept 1.1A).

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Concept 1.1 7

One essential ecosystem service is chemical, or ent, cycling—the basis for one of the three scientific principles of sustainability (Figure 1.2) Chemical cycling helps to turn wastes into resources An important

nutri-component of nutrient cycling is topsoil—a vital natural

resource that provides us and most other land-dwelling species with food Without nutrient cycling in topsoil, life

as we know it could not exist on the earth’s land

Natural capital is also supported by energy from the sun—the focus of another of the scientific prin

ciples of sustainability (Figure 1.2) Thus, our lives and economies depend on energy from the sun, and on natural

resources and ecosystem services (natural capital) provided

by the earth (Concept 1.1B).

A second component of sustainability—and another subtheme of this text—is to recognize that many human

activities can degrade natural capital by using normally

re-newable resources such as trees and topsoil faster than

nature can restore them and by overloading the earth’s normally renewable air and water systems with pollution and wastes For example, in some parts of the world, we are replacing diverse and naturally sustainable forests (Figure 1.4) with crop plantations that can be sustained only with large inputs of water, fertilizer, and pesticides We are also adding harmful chemicals and wastes to some rivers, lakes, and oceans faster than these bodies of water can cleanse themselves through natural processes In addition, we are disrupting the nutrient cycles that support life because many of the plastics and other synthetic materials that we have created cannot be broken down and used as nutrients

by other organisms

This leads us to a third component of sustainability:

solutions While environmental scientists search for

scien-tific solutions to problems such as the degradation of ests and other forms of natural capital, social scientists are looking for economic and political solutions For example,

for-Sustainability Has Certain Key Components

Sustainability, the central integrating theme of this book,

has several critical components that we use as subthemes

One such component is natural capital—the natural

resources and ecosystem services that keep us and other

species alive and support human economies (Figure 1.3)

Natural resources are materials and energy in

na-ture that are essential or useful to humans They are often

classified as inexhaustible resources (such as energy from

the sun and wind), renewable resources (such as air, water,

topsoil, plants, and animals) or nonrenewable or depletable

resources (such as copper, oil, and coal) Ecosystem

ser-vices are processes provided by healthy ecosystems that

support life and human economies at no monetary cost to

us Examples include purification of air and water,

re-newal of topsoil, nutrient cycling, pollination, and pest

control

Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Ecosystem ServicesNatural Capital

Air Air purification Climate control

UV protection (ozone layer)

Soil renewal Food production

Water purification Waste treatment Water

Life (biodiversity)

Nonrenewable minerals (iron, sand)

Nonrenewable energy (fossil fuels)

Renewable energy (sun, wind, water flows)

Nutrient recycling

Population control Pest control

Solar energy

Natural gas

Coal seam Oil

Natural resources Ecosystem services

FIGURE 1.3 Natural capital consists of natural resources (blue) and ecosystem services (orange) that

support and sustain the earth’s life and human economies (Concept 1.1B).

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a scientific solution to the problems of depletion of forests

is to stop burning or cutting down biologically diverse,

mature forests (Figure 1.4) A scientific solution to the

problem of pollution of rivers is to prevent the excessive

dumping of harmful chemicals and wastes into streams

and to allow them to recover naturally However, to

im-plement such solutions, governments often have to enact

and enforce environmental laws and regulations

The search for solutions often involves conflicts For

example, when a scientist argues for protecting a

long-undisturbed forest to help preserve its important

biodiver-sity, the timber company that had planned to harvest the

trees in that forest might protest Dealing with such

con-flicts often involves making trade-offs, or compromises—

another component of sustainability For example, the timber company might be persuaded to plant and harvest trees in an area that it had already cleared or degraded, instead of clearing the undis-turbed forest In return, the government might

give the company a subsidy, or financial support, to

meet some of the costs for planting the trees

In making a shift toward sustainability, the daily actions of each and every individual are im-

portant In other words, individuals

matter—an-other subtheme of this book History shows that almost all of the significant changes in human systems that have improved environmental quality have come from the bottom up, through the col-lective actions of individuals and from individuals inventing more sustainable ways of doing things

Other Principles of Sustainability Come from the Social Sciences

Our study of environmental problems, proposed solutions, and trade-offs has led us to propose three

social science principles of sustainability

(Figure 1.5), derived from studies of nomics, political science, and ethics:

eco-• Full-cost pricing (from economics): Many

economists urge us to find ways to include the harmful environmental and health costs

of producing and using goods and services in their market prices—a practice called full-cost pricing This would give consumers better

information about the environmental impacts

of their lifestyles, and it would allow them to make more informed choices about the goods and services they use

• Win-win solutions (from political science):

We can learn to work together in dealing with environmental problems by recognizing our interdependent connections with others and with our life-support system This means

shifting from a win-lose approach based on

competition and dominance of other humans and of

ecosystems to win-win solutions that are based on

compromise in light of our interdependence and that benefit both people and the environment

• A responsibility to future generations (from

ethics): We should leave the planet’s life-support systems in at least as good a condition as that which

we now enjoy, if not better, for future generations

Other researchers have proposed additional ability principles, but we believe that our six prin

sustain-ciples of sustainability (Figure 1.2, Figure 1.5, and Supplement 7, pp S50–S51) can serve as key guidelines for helping us live more sustainably

The clearing of vast areas of forest is an example

of natural capital degradation.

FIGURE 1.4 Small remaining area of once diverse Amazon rain forest surrounded

by vast soybean fields in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

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Concept 1.1 9

Resources Are Inexhaustible, Renewable,

or Nonrenewable

A resource is anything that we can obtain from the

envi-ronment to meet our needs and wants Some resources, such as surface water, trees, and edible wild plants, are directly available for use Other resources, such as petro-leum, minerals, wind, and underground water, become useful to us only with some effort and technological ingenuity

Resources can be classified as inexhaustible, renewable, or nonrenewable (exhaustible) (Figure 1.6) Solar energy is called an inexhaustible resource because its continuous

supply is expected to last for at least 6 lion years until the sun dies It also pro-vides us with inexhaustible wind and flowing water that we use to produce electricity A renewable resource is

bil-one that can be replenished by ural processes within hours to centuries, as long as we do not use it up faster than natural processes can renew it Exam-ples include forests, grasslands, fishes, fertile topsoil, clean air, and freshwater The highest rate

nat-at which we can use a renewable resource indefinitely without re-ducing its available supply is called its

FIGURE 1.5 Three social science principles of sustainability can help us make

a transition to a more environmentally and economically sustainable future.

Left: Carole Castelli/Shutterstock Center: Alexander Kalina/Shutterstock com Right: Karl Naundorf/Shutterstock.com.

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